Fountain pen



UZ- 31 1943- B. w. HANLE 2,328,143

FOUNTAIN PEN Filed June 27, 1942 if# lf M Il? L j* i *j INVENTOR ,en'cz/nifl Wafzz 3g 36 6W Bg. 35 1%/ @AMW ATTORNEYS Patented Aug. 31, 1943FOUNTAIN PEN Benjamin w. Henle, minnen, N. J.,

Eagle Pencil Companyk a-.sslgnor'tol a corporation of Dela- .appueationJune z'z, 1942, semi No. 448,709

(c1. 12o-5o) 6 Claims.

1t is among the objects of the invention to provide a fountain pen andmore especially a writing end construction thereof, which shall beoutstandingly simple and inexpensive and which shall considerablyalleviate, if not entirely overcome, the diiiiculties encountered withmany otherwise well made and` high priced fountain pens and which inparticular shall not only start instantly as long as there is any ink inthe reservoir. but which shall be substantially proof against overflowor excessive discharge or blotting even when the ink is low in thereservoir.

In the accompanying drawing in which is shown one of various possibleembodiments of the several features of the invention,

Fig. 1 is a view of the pen in longitudinal crosssection,

Fig. 2 is a sectional view ofthe forward portion thereof taken on line 22 of Fig. l,

Figs. 3, 4 and 5 are transverse sectional views on a somewhat largerscale taken respectively on the lines 3 3, 4 4 and 5 5 of Fig. 1, and

Fig. 6 is a perspective view of the feed rod.

Referring nowto the drawing, the pen barrel and filling equipment may beof any desired construction either of the bag filler, plunger, vacuum orother type. Illustratively a more or less conventional plunger type ofpen is shown in which the barrel I is equipped with piston II having aplunger I2 protruding through the end wall I3 of the barrel and aremovable cap I 4 protecting the said plunger during normal use. Wherethe plunger type filler is used, it is preferably of improved type shownbut not claimed herein. It comprises preferably a felt piston I over thereduced end I8 of the plunger rod I2, which is upset at its extremity atI1 over a. washer Il, said plunger rod being releasably threaded at I 9into the correspondingly tapped bore 1n the barrel end wall I3, so thatupon rotating the piston rod after filling thepen, the felt plunger isplaced under compression and the entry of air and possible leakage, areavoided. This construction need not be described in further detail as itconstitutes the subject-matter of my copending application, Serial No.442,887 filed May 14, 1942.

'I'he section of the pen is preferably a conical tip 20, the shank 2| ofwhich may be frictionally fitted into the forward end of the barrel.'I'he tip has a longitudinal axial bore 22 through the entire lengththereof.

The feed is a simple solid rod 25 with parallel iiats 23, theintervening curved areas 24 thereof snugly fitting into the bore 22 ofthe fountain pen tip and desirably extending the entire length of thebore as shown. 'I'he forward end of the feed rod is bifurcated to afforda pair of thin rather flexible fingers 21 and 2l spaced by the width ofthe rather wide slot 29 therebetween. Desirably the slot is of widthapproximately equal to the thickness of each of the fingers 21 and 23.Cne of the fingers 21 is desirably of considerable length,in a preferredembodiment approximately inch long and is rounded as at 30 at itsforward end. The other finger 28 is considerably shorter, its lengthbeing desirably only in the order of 1A inch, and it may terminateabruptly in a square end 3|.

The end of the shorter finger 28 of the feed rod is well within or abovethe forward rim of the tip and may be in the order of inch above saidtip. The longer finger 21 protrudes somewhat beyond the forward end ofthe tip. In a practical construction, such protrusion may be for alength in the order of 1/3 inch as at 32. Both fingers are convex attheir outer face and are snugly engaged by the bore 22 of the tip.

The fountain pen nib is of extraordinarily small dimensions. Its lengthmay be in the order of as little as one-half inch and its width in theorder of one-eighth inch, so that it requires but a small fraction ofthe metal of the conventional pen. Thus the invention makes possible theuse of gold for the nib of a pen in a surprisingly low price range. Inshape the pen point may otherwise be identical with that of the usualpen point, including as it does the generally cylindrical shank portion33. and the nib portion 34 with the Iridium point 35 and longitudinallyslit at 36. The length of the pen nib axially engages the inner fiatface 31 of the feed finger 21 as best shown in Fig. 5 and the lateraledges of the shank of said pen nib frictionally engage the tip alongdiametrically opposite parts of the wall of the cylindrical bore 22. Thepen nib extends inward from the forward end of the tip to near,preferably slightly beyond, the forward end 3| of the shorter feedfinger 28.

The pen nib is securely held in position, since it can neither rock normove parallel to itself, by reason of the fact that its center line andits lateral edges form a three-point support, two points of which arealong opposite edges of a diametral plane of the bore. The flexible longfinger 21 is adequately protected against breakage since it is clampedbetween the pen nib and the tip and its short protruding forward end 32is not sub- Jecttoiniury.

'In operation, it will readily be seen that the .ink travels downthrough the segmental passageway 40 between a flat of the feed and thebore, while venting takes place through the other segmental` passageway4l and the ink readily reaches the pen nib as the pen is being used.When the pen barrel is nearly empty, so that the major barrel contentsare air, overflow or leakage of ink due to expansion of the air in the.pen barrel under rising temperature is substantially obviated by thepresent invention, even while the pen is not being used. F011, the inkpropelled along the feed rod due to such air expansion, enters thecavity 42 between the two fingers of the feed rod, tending to ll thatcavity. Under unusually great rise in temperature such cavity 42 mightbecome completely lled. Leakage would not occur, however, even were suchhigh temperature sustained for a long time, for under such condition inkwould overow into cavity 43 below the edge 3l of the shorter feed finger28 and between the concave side of the pen point 33 and the bore 22. The

said cavities 42 and 43 constitute a well which would have to becompletely filled with ink before blotting or overow could occur as a.result of further air expansion. That is quite unlikely veven underextremely unfavorable conditions of operation. The ink, even though itnearly fills both the cavities 42 and 43 will be effectively retainedtherein by capillary action without any likelihood of overflow.

While the pen is in actual use the air inthe barrel expanding under theheat of the hand would advance the ink at rate no faster than the rateof ink consumption in writing, so that cavities 42 and 43 would not tendto collect ink Iduring writing even under unfavorable conditions.

As many changes could be made in the above construction and manyapparently widely different embodiments of this invention could be madewithout departing from the scope of the claims, it is intended that allmatter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanyingdrawing shal1 be interpreted as illustraiilve and not in a limitingsense.

Having thus describedmy invention, what I claim as new and desire tosecure byvLetters Patent of the United States is:

l. A fountain pencomprising a conical -tip having an axial borethereinfa feed rod laterally attened and fitting in said bore, said feedrod being bifurcated and affording a pair of spaced forwardly extendingfingers, one of said fingers terminating shortvof the forward end of thetip, the other protruding beyond said tip and a pen nibfrictionallygripped at its lateral edges by the Wall of said bore, the mid-sectionof said pen nib extending longitudinally of and engaging the forwardpart of said protruding :finger and clearing the other finger.

2. In a fountain pen, a conical tip having a longitudinal bore, aflattened solid feed rod snugly 'engaging said bore along the surfacesbetween the ats and protruding inward beyond said bore, said feedrod-being longitudinallyV slotted at its forward end, to afford a pairof lingers. one of said ngers being considerably longer than the other,both of said ngers engaging the bore of the tip, the longer fingerprotruding beyond the forward end of the tipy the shorter finger beingwholly within said tip and a pen nib snugly engagingthe inner face ofsaid longer feed finger, the lateral edges of said pen nib beingfrictionally engaged along diametrically opposite parts of the bore inthe tip.

3. A fountain pen comprising a conical tip having an axial bore, a solidfeed rod frictionally fitting in said bore and affording a feed passage,said rod having a thin forwardly extending finger engaging the wall ofsaid bore, the longitudinal edges of said pen nib engagingdiametrflcally opposite parts of the wall of said bore, with said feednger retained between the pen nib and the Wall of the bore, said feedrod affording a substantial open ink retaining well within the .tipcommunicating with saidl feed passage and located between the pen niband the wall of the bore.

4. In a fountain pen, the combination of a conical tip having alongitudinal bore, a solid feed rod attened along opposite sides andsnugly fitting in said bore, said rod being longitudinally bifurcated atits forward end to afford a pair of substantially spaced thin fingers,one of said ngers protruding from the forward end of the tip, a pen niblongitudinally engaging the inner face of said protruding `finger, andthe lateral edges of said nib frictionally engaging diametricallyopposite parts of the wall of said bore, the othernger of said feed barbeing within said tip adjacent the inner end of said pen nib.

5. In a fountain pen, the combination of a conical tip having acylindrical bore, a unitary feed rod comprising a pair of parallel flatssnugly fitting at the region between said flats in said cylindricalbore, the forward end of said feed rod being bifurcated to afford a pairof thin iingers spaced from each other by a substantial gap, the rootsof said ngers being encompassed by said cylindrical bore, one of saidfingers extending along said bore somewhat beyond said tip, the other ofsaid fingers extending along and wholly within said bore for a lengthless than half the length of the longerfinger, and a curved pen nibsymmetrically engaging the inner of said pen nib frictionally engagingdiametrically opposite parts of the wall of said bore and the inner endofthe pen nib being near the forward end of the shorter finger.

6. The fountain pen recited in claim 5 in which the longer finger isrounded at its outer end and the shorter finger ends abruptly and inwhich each of the fingers is of thickness approximately one thirdthe'diameter of the feed rod.

BENJAMIN W. HANIE.

